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So I've come up with a great way to mount the thing to the car: Place the servo inside the body, mounted to a project box which is mounted to the body, this way there is 3-way support to the Pan & Tilt setup, and it's all using rubber bushings from other servos, so that there are no harsh vibrations.

Roughed out where to cut, then looking from underneath, I shined a bright light so I could see the trace marks, I outlined them with a blade then cut with a dremel tool:

Mounted:

Underneath:

Here's how she sits!

No problems rotating!

Because this is a smaller scale body, it was very hard to make this all work, it couldn't be too high, couldn't be too low, couldn't be too far left or right, still has to be able to tilt up and down and spin without being too high or low etc... there is about 1.5mm clearence to all sides, between the roll cage side and top, and the chair/center console side and bottom. Sometimes you just get lucky - and a company sells a camera called the GoPro haha!

ONE issue is that I cannot be looking far down, AND turn to the left of the car, the top left of the camera hits the roll cage - that's okay, it's only if I'm looking at the floor and looking left, which I'll just have to make sure I never do.

So the past 10 minutes, I've managed to slice BOTH thumbs to the bone, so I've figured "I can't use my thumbs, so I'm pretty much USELESS lets take some pics, and put'm up!"

... really, stupid scalpels! Worst part is, I did it and yelled in pain, then did it AGAIN to the other hand within 2 minutes. Idiot.

Regardless, I've figured out how I'm going to mount this body to the Summit, and I've also completed the TILT functionality.

Here's the front mount:

Here's the rear mount:

Because this is very cheap plastic, I'm afraid would snap in the front if I rolled hard enough, so I built some extra support:

This:

To this:

Now it's rock solid!

This is how the rear is mounted now! You can see the old body post mounting holes and the new body post placement:

Here's the TILT setup, clearence was a big issue again, so the servo is centered, and at it's location it has the greatest tilt range, any higher and you lose tilt down, any lower and you tilt up. Any further left or right, and the thing can't pan because it'll hit the chair or the side wall. I tell ya, they didn't make this easy on me!

I'm loving this thread. Do you know what aspect of the vtx/rtx controls the range? (frequency, power, etc?) A lot of the information I have been reading specifically refers to FPV planes and helis so I'm not sure what changes when only being on the ground.

The longer the wavelength (the lower the mhz) the better object penetration you have. HOWEVER the lower the wavelength the more noise can be induced and you certainly cannot be around anyone using an old portable phone, the same frequency or any of that. Where as something like a 5.8ghz has SO MUCH bandwidth that there can be 20 guys all using it with different "channels" and there's no problem - UNTIL you go behind a tree and lose line of sight. So people end up with POWERFUL transmitters, 1watt, 1.5watt even 2.5watt (KILLS the battery and generates a HECK of a lot of heat) but the trouble with THAT is: Everyone's plane, or car, or anything becomes totally saturated and falls out of the sky or drives on to the road.

So there is no one best setup for FPV, ground or air. There is a best setup for specific areas, and it really comes down to testing. My 1.2ghz 1watt system is very powerful, and has great object penetration - walls, trees, etc... - and I'll be able to drive all around my country property. BUT if I bring it downtown Toronto for instance, it'll still work, but the range will be GREATLY reduced AND emergency vehicles use the 1.2ghz range so I could interfere with their communications - a big no no (for the guy about to die, not for the guy using the radio)

So there's lousy answer for ya! Your main question was what aspect controls the range: Certainly output power first and foremost - secondly the receiver setup, yagi antenna, patch antenna, etc.. (the factory installed small whip omni antennas are usually best as they come tuned to the frequency already) and thirdly, location.

Hope this helps =)

Heck I've only done ONE fpv drive so far haha, I've had the gear for a week, and been busy working on the setup and not actually DRIVING! AND it's going to be raining for the next few days, figures. (the gear isn't waterproof)

Hi. Krall. Very interesting and amazing project. You really are doing this FPV thing right. I see that you are using a Gopro HD Hero2. Gopro will be releasing a WIFI BACPAC very soon. This would mean that you could have full operational control over the camera. Like toggling from video to still or changing video settings - even turn on or off. You could also initiate record/stop at any time. The pack includes a remote that fits to your wrist. Check out the Gopro website.

I have a new 2012 Tqi Summit and a new Gopro Hero2 and am watching your thread very excitedly. I am gonna do and FPV system soon.

Awesome, I heard about it wasn't sure what the point was - now I know thanks! I was thinking about this, and making just a mini servo that activates record/stop and changes modes - but I really don't need that. Most FPV rides will only be between 10-50 minutes, and with a 32gb card there's no issue recording the whole time. If I find I have extra cash sitting around I might get one just for the sake of it, but between the extra battery draw and the pan/tilt system not being built for the extra size of the wifipack, I doubt it'll happen.

2012 Summit and Hero 2 are my two favorite parts of this project, do it you'll have a blast!

Not sure, but since it's a 1400mAh and the transmitter wants 5-600mAh it'd be good for at least a couple hours of transmitting, longer than I would ever be out with it per run.

That 7-segment LED display for the gears is 7mm tall. I don't expect to see it behind the steering wheel, let alone have it in focus, but it'll be there, slightly focussed with about 900% awesome factor!

Certainly copy me! It'd be the, "COOL" move to do hahah, only us cool folks do it

Yeah both the transmitter and receiver run 12v, I think +/- 15% which means a 3S fully charged, to fully drained will be fine. Then you want to find a screen on the field. You are better off getting a lead acid battery though like in my video, they are $5 vs the $30+ lipos.

The screen you want would be best designed for a car navigation or something like that - something that is to run DC not AC (a computer monitor or TV is usually AC) and DC means 12v usually, which is perfect because they are FAR better when it comes to efficiency, you won't need to buy an AC to DC converter and have all kinds of power requirements. You could even just get a small screen from ebay for $30, get the receiver taped to the back of it, with a lipo attached, to the back, and now you have a screen, battery, receiver... alll portable as you can get!

Check this out:

Not too bad!

In the end though I'm making a Pelican Case (1450) ground station, will be as awesome as awesome can be. It's not a HUGE case but it's not tiny, and it'll house a 10-11" 4:3 screen very nicely. That's next month when my funds recharge haha.

I just spent the past hour fixing my transmitter though, the wires break off easily and I didn't bother opening it up to fix it. If you can't solder and you DO get this transmitter, make sure the first thing you do is put some silicone glue around the base of the wires so that never happens to you. I also custom made a heatsink for it, took an old one and cut it up and mounted it nicely with some thermal paste, check it out:

I ordered the black one on Saturday came in today, haven't found a use for it yet. This shows the size differences:

Taking off the stock heatsink, it's TAPED on!? Haha not even any thermal paste, what a joke:

I cut up the blue heatsink, here it is test fitted (I drilled a hole for the dip switches didn't get a pic of it) Look at the size difference. This once is great as it will cause a type of convection, as the heat rises, it will pull cool air from below in to it from each side - front, back, both sides - helping keep things cool:

Here's the amount (almost too much) of thermal paste I used:

Just as I sealed mounted the heatsink with zipties, BLAMO ground wire fell off:

Re-soldered it, and covered it all with silicone glue, this stuff will still flex in -10° so no problems anymore!

Here she is all fixed up, with super cooling:

That blue heatsink is from 20 years ago, one of those proof of concept projects my father was working on, and has just kept it in one of the too many boxes of junk ever since! Pretty lucky.

The camera doesn't come with a video out connector, only a usb one. So you get the "fpv 2.5mini jack" setup, and that will allow you to take the video out to the transmitter. It's like $5-15.

3s lipo is great ON the truck, but it's a waste in a base station, lead-acid (small one, like in my video) is so much better for the base station IMO, because of the cost, you can buy 5 for the price of one lipo. They are sealed, so they are totally safe.

Right now I'm just researching the best way to power all my on-board stuff. I have my VXL3S that I don't use, but it's big and bulky, probably just going to get a UBEC but I don't know of availability, and want to see if the EVX2 can handle what I need. I mean it comes ready to power all the led's on the truck, and it's not like I'd be using all the servos at once! Maybe pan/tilt/steering at maximum! We'll see.

I figured the silicone has dried enough by now, so I plugged the battery in to the transmitter to see how hot it will get with the new heatsink/paste.

So far (10 minutes in) it's about as warm as it used to be within 30 seconds! Half way up the heat sink is much cooler than the base, this means a lot of heat is being dissapated, and THAT is a good thing. I can hold the thing in my hand without any concern for, "oh crap is this TOO hot!?" it's just... hot and that's perfectly acceptable/expected.

I swear every time I turn this thing on I get a headache.. I guess sitting 12" away from a 1000mW transmitter isn't good for your head after all. Anyway, it's now been almost 15 minutes and it's been sitting flat on my desk, and it is much warmer now. However still not TOO hot, so looks like this was a good move!

On a side note, if I put the thing close to my head I can hear a high pitched hum, so if I try really hard to listen, I can hear it saying something, it's telling me to

I wanted to see how it would look driving with the lights on real quick now that I have the body mounted correctly, and blamo. Haha, wasn't wearing it's safety either - roll cage wasn't on - so stupid drawer also hit the camera, luckily it didn't snap the rig. CLOSE CALL I say, close call...

Always remember folks, when testing an FPV vehicle, make sure the roll cage is ON first! Ah well, now I'm thinking I'm going to build a solid roll cage, AND re-do the windshield so I can see the HOOD as well, because with no windshield, you can see the hood and it looks great.

Oh now I see what you mean, I had to watch that one video again that shows the little clunky lead acid battery..

I'd pm but the forum's being really slow for me right now, do they sell those on the same site? the 1200mah acid packs, and would you consider using one on the summit with stronger shock springs or is it too heavy/bulky?

So now I've basically completed the windshield. I knew that you can't super glue plexiglass without it fogging, so was careful to put only a VERY small amount, but I still got some fogging issues, oh well. At least NOW I have a CLEAR window, AND can see the hood while driving. The original windshield blocked the view of the hood, so it made it very difficult to judge the front of the car, AND it was lousy plastic so it was very wavey.

Here's how it looks stock: *I really like the black surround, I'm going to figure out an effective way to do this:

Here's the new screen cut out to shape and the frame has been heavily modified to allow the new piece to fit in, I had to mod the dashboard too as this piece is at least 2mm thick where the original is a fraction of a mm thick:

Here's how it sits, the old windscreen is against it to show the size comparison, MUCH more view has opened up!

... on a sidenote, during production - my dog ended up going through the windshield:

Haha

Here's a video showing the old vs new and how much clearer the new one is:

I wanted to EDIT this video in the previous post, but this forum hasn't been in a very good mood for the past couple days, so now I need to make a new post SHOOOOWING, the hood and how much easier it is to drive it now - I'm not driving FPV, so... yeah. My basement is a disaster I know I know I know... lotsa projects on the go

I was going to ask about that lawmates penetration power, I think you said it was going through a few walls and an old stove or chimney? I don't know, do you think it could go through (or around, however it works) an average size 3 bedroom house? (from outside to outside)

or would it be a worse connection if say the receiver were inside on the opposite corner of the house from the truck, which would be outside?

Yes it certainly can! My first FPV (actually, ONLY one so far, shh) was me on one side of the house, driving all through it, then outside about 200 feet away, and the video broke up a bit, but certainly wasn't gone at ALL and totally driveable, and that was with a poorly mounted transmitter, and a receiver laying flat on my table - signal through a brick wall, a stove, an iron wood-stove, another brick wall, two drywall walls, a cinder block wall, and another exterior wall, then about 4-5 trees, and a bit of a hill. That's how it ACTUALLY was, and again the video was totally driveable, but wasn't as clear as it is when you're right beside it - in my video on the first page showing how clear it is up close - so there you have it, you'll have no problem driving AROUND your house let alone your neighbor's ... just behave! pffft hahah right

I need to get some switches and a UBEC before I finalize this electrically.

I am going to have a 10-pin ribbon cable connect from the chassis, to a connector board mounted underneath the body, this way I can control the chassis lights from the second rx, but MORE importantly:

I am going to have a light representing UNLOCKED/FRONT LOCKED/BOTH LOCKED - that's two switches right there, and another two throw (on or on) switch for the transmission with that 7-segment LED I showed earlier saying what gear I'm in. That's 3 wires for the gear switch, 2 wires for front diff, 2 wires for rear diff, 2 wires for the chassis lights. I'm also putting a y-splitter for the steering servo, to make a steering wheel turn, I am going to use my free Traxxas turning 2080 waterproof servo since it's sitting around doing nothing, and that too will connect from the chassis to the body connector.

I'm working it all out right now in photoshop to see how it's going to work best.

man.. finally got on the forum for a whole minute lol. That's good to know about the range and power holy, I just want it to be able to peak around a building without the screen getting completely fuzzy, so sweeeeeet! Just have to worry about the transmitter heat from running for long periods.

Wish picking the colour of your summit was an option but oh well. Extra stoked again!! I just need to do some more window shopping for a small display screen and then I'm set. The rest I'll figure out in 5 weeks like the heatsink, gopro accessories, some kind of panning system possibly (< not likely), etc., etc...

Well.. Your setup is definitely going to be as sick as all heck maybe you could hook me up with a panning dial hahah I could send you my remote with a little something in the battery tray lol

No, but your thing's gunna be a killer once you get it all configured, I'll probably just roll with the 170 setting on all the time, it should be alright

oh yeah, are you having any heat troubles with the transmitter after 15 minutes? because you said it gradually gets hotter, is it going to keep getting hotter and hotter or will it max out at a reasonable temp.? maybe I should be hunting down a nice heatsink now too.

Sorry i didn't read the whole thread but go pro is coming out with a "backpack" that will let you stream the video to a smartphone which you can hook up to a TV... so if it doesnt end up the way you want there is always another option. i was going to try this based off of someone earlier but i forgot about it until i got a go pro then i found out about the backpack and i though that would be great , and thats what i am going to do

That's another possible option, a lot cheaper too hmm.. I gave it a quick sweep through before and I thought it only said wifi remote but no it does say "live preview, viewable from your smartphone..."

wifi definitely won't have the same signal strength though, it'll be a lot weaker. I don't know, unless that things going to sell for like $30 I don't think I'll be interested. these lawmates are ballin lol. I have problems with my wifi from 50ft away even with a clear shot.

Thanks for the suggestion zonda (it has already been mentioned in this thread, but as you said; you hadn't read it) but the issue will be range, and live video. I believe it is only being sold as something to PREVIEW what you have done on your smartphone, that way when you're out skiing at the top of a hill and you want to see that the camera is angled right, you take a picture, and view it on your phone, maybe even view the video you recorded on your phone.

It is not a LIVE out video, nor will it go much further than about 100 feet - FCC won't let wifi broadcast far enough. Besides wifi is 2.4-5.8ghz and those are very line of sight frequencies. Even IF you could go 100 feet, WITH live view... you couldn't have so much as a tree between you and the 100 foot mark.

The wifi pack is ONLY going to be good for seeing what you're about to do, or have done - which is important, so many times I have to just "hope" the camera is facing right - you DO get used to it after a while though. All of these small cams come without a preview screen (except the new foxtech ones, they look promising) so there you have it.

*cheers

**

To answer your question TQi about the heat - it will only rise to a certain temp. Even the stock heatsink will be okay to drive around with, it's just not okay to leave sitting, not moving, in the sun. You won't NEED another heat sink, but I strongly recommend it!

Thanks for the suggestion zonda (it has already been mentioned in this thread, but as you said; you hadn't read it) but the issue will be range, and live video. I believe it is only being sold as something to PREVIEW what you have done on your smartphone, that way when you're out skiing at the top of a hill and you want to see that the camera is angled right, you take a picture, and view it on your phone, maybe even view the video you recorded on your phone.

It is not a LIVE out video, nor will it go much further than about 100 feet - FCC won't let wifi broadcast far enough. Besides wifi is 2.4-5.8ghz and those are very line of sight frequencies. Even IF you could go 100 feet, WITH live view... you couldn't have so much as a tree between you and the 100 foot mark.

The wifi pack is ONLY going to be good for seeing what you're about to do, or have done - which is important, so many times I have to just "hope" the camera is facing right - you DO get used to it after a while though. All of these small cams come without a preview screen (except the new foxtech ones, they look promising) so there you have it.

*cheers

**

To answer your question TQi about the heat - it will only rise to a certain temp. Even the stock heatsink will be okay to drive around with, it's just not okay to leave sitting, not moving, in the sun. You won't NEED another heat sink, but I strongly recommend it!

What I was thinking I throw on my smartphone with 4g and broadcast a wifi signal then, just go to any computer and control it. The range of video would be un limited but the range on the rc will be limited to the range on the tx.

I'm not so sure about your "unlimited range" there but I did just see a video about the range being up to 600 feet with the remote and that's giving me second thoughts. I'm pretty sure trying to do a couple hundred feet while streaming a live video through walls isn't going to work but we'll see. this will probably be really nice for fpv flying, what do you think krall?

I don't want to wait until december for fpv either way unless I'm completely sure that this will be a decent alternative..

Sounds promising, but I guess only time will tell - as has been the case with this wifi add-on anyway; time!

All I can say, the lawmate system is already available and it's range is far greater. It's analogue as well, which means static/snow not... ON or OFF video as digital wifi would be. With my system if I start going out of range, I will know because it will get less and less clear, but with wifi it will be on, or off AND there will be lag, too much to drive real time by. Again this is for monitoring things, not for FPV unfortunately. I'm all for this working, but technically I don't think it's going to be the ticket.

I just got back from hobbyhobby (in the hail, at rush hour, GREAT timing...) and picked up the CC 10amp BEC (programmable, I just changed it from 5.1v output to 6v output via the castle link I bought when I got the MMP for the mini E-Revo) a couple HS-55 servos for something else, a bunch of connectors and some servo tape to properly mount my tilt servo. Very exciting.

yeah I wish this thing was out already and people were testing it's range/speed

There's an ipad dock that increases range up to 6x among other things like speed and technical stuff I forget, it would for sure look a lot cleaner than what I'm picturing my lawmate set up to look like (wires sticking out here and there) but still I can only wonder if it would perform good enough to enjoy it, and yeah they keep pushing the release date.

I live in a wifi rich place right now so that wouldn't be good anyway wouldn't it interfere? just put my mind at ease so I can forget this whole wifi backpack idea lol

So good'ol'smart'ol'me....... I put the ROLL CAGE on and found the camera doesn't pan left if the video cable is hooked up! Where the heck has my mind been to have not tested that!?!? What a pain, and to top it off, it was only hitting with about 5mm too little room.

So I started hacking away at it, but it looked horrible, and wasn't really doing the job. I knew I wanted to improve the roll cage but hadn't though of how yet since it's not mounted in the front or the back, only in the center!?

Here's how it looked:

Then I removed that driver side center beam (B Pillar) and started to fab up some aluminum pieces: (the left and ride of the rear bed of the truck)

Then made your every-day-typical-youtube-looking-roll bar.. roll bar:

Marked some spots for mounting, mounted it up, and now it's solid!

In this pic you can also see how I had to modify the left side of the pan bar... I swear I've been in a daze this whole time, with the rear "box" in (the steal looking utility box) the pan hits it, so I lucked out and only had to shave the corners of it off:

I'm thinking I'm going to continue the roll bar underneath the truck body so that I can bring it to the rear mount, that way when it lands upside down, or hits sideways, the force is continued through to the chassis, and not just the Jeep body. Lotsa work, and my finger is killing me with metal shavings, but I think it's a necessity.

In other news, when I was researching the CC BEC I found this in their faq:

25. Is my CC BEC edible?

Please refrain from tasting the yummy goodness of the CC BEC. Castle Creations is not responsible for any cases of upset stomach, indigestion, or other GI malfunctions as a result of CC BEC consumption. Eating a CC BEC is known to cause cancer in the state of California.

Great so after getting it all solidified and all that goodness, I take it out for the first drive with the camera in the mount and SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE Y'BODY, ALL OVER DA PLACE.. or however that stupid song goes.

Point is, I'm making a new camera mount, with a top support as well. Half way done:

Here's the basic idea:

Here's that sweet little hinge idea - super low profile:

That first pic shows the top bar support binding.. it's pulling the camera mount UP in to the roll bar, that needs to change. Space is too limited to the put the top support BELOW the roll bar, and the hinge is too thin (and already mounted permanently) to put a washer to level out the support bar. Problalems probablems probalems.